BURNING. 



. senators, and Julius C*sar, in like manner, by the 



tes of Rome. Oilier, were supported by 



i ; :uul Tn-bius, who had relieved the 



ts of the people in time of scarcity, was borne on 



their .^uniklers to be burned. Although cremation 



wa.- ' ' infants, yet if they attained :i C 



.e ceremonial demanded that they should be 

 I he funeral jiile by their mothers. 

 '.i funeral pomp was now displayed : In bear- 

 the corpse to the pile, each attendant had his own 

 place assigned ; u:id along with the couch were car- 

 ried many others, containing waxen busts of the an- 

 ! y and relatives of the deceased. A solemn dirge 

 was sung, accompanied by trumpets and other instru- 

 ments, and an oration in honour of the deceased was 

 recited. While that on Julius Caesar was heard, his 

 body rested under a gilt pavilion, and the robe in 

 which he had been killed was suspended aloft to public 

 view. His image, also, exhibiting all the wounds he. 

 had received, was exposed in a moveable carriage. 



The pile prepared to receive the deceased was of 

 a pyramidal form, lofty in proportion to the rank he 

 had enjoyed. When the couch bearing the corpse 

 was deposited upon it, the eyes were opened, and 

 the rings restored to the fingers. Then the nearest 

 relation filled the mouth with a certain aromatic 

 in, and, turning away his face, applied a lighted 

 torch. Perfumes were thrown over the pile ; wine 

 poured among the flames to promote the conflagra- 

 tion ; and invocations offered up for the aid of the 



> to consume the body. 



In the mean time, if the pile was that of an illus- 

 trious warrior, the soldiers marched three times around 

 il with inverted weapons, and striking the ground at 

 certain intervals. 



Various bloody sacrifices were made to the manes 

 of the deceased : Animals were thrown into the fire ; 

 dogs and horses were destroyed along with their own- 

 ers ; nay, slaves and captives were also barbarously 

 burnt alive. Every thing that the deceased prized 

 during life was consumed ; so that it might, according 

 to the superstitions of the ancients, be useful to him 

 after death. But to avoid the cruelty and expence 

 of burning slaves or captives, a blood-coloured vest- 

 ment was generally thrown on the pile. 



Games, pantomimes, and the combats of gladia- 

 tors followed, at which one of the most conspicuous 

 characters was the Archinnmua, who personated the 

 manners of the deceased. At the funeral of Vespa- 

 sian, the archimimus, with the characteristic avarice 

 of that emperor, declared, that, rather than that the 

 intended expence should be lavished on his obsequies, 

 he would have his body thrown into the Tiber. The 

 games were protracted during three days at the fu- 

 i.eral of Publius JLicinius ; and L:vy records, that no 

 les than seventy gladiators fought on the occasion. 



When the pile was consumed, the fire was extin- 

 guished, and the embers soaked in wine. The near- 

 est relatives, or eminent men, habited in loose robes, 

 and bare- footed, collected the bones and ashes toge- 

 ther. Thus, the chief of the equestrian order, atti- 

 red in robes, and wanting sandals, gathered the re- 

 mains of the Emperor Augustus. The ashes, afti r 

 being sprinkled with wine and the richest perfumes, 

 were committed to an urn, and the whole was con- 

 feigned to the earth or to a tomb. 

 VOL. V. PAKT I. 



After returning from the ceremony, those who were 



;;.'edin it stepped over a fire for purification, a* all l> 

 who had seen a corpse were defiled ; and priests and 

 magistrate*, before resuming their functions, were 

 obliged to offer an expiatory sacrifice. 



Them? general observations, an far as can be ascer- 

 tained, apply to the Carthaginians, Greeks, and Ro- 

 mans, as well as to other nations of antiquity. With 

 respect to the Romans, it is not well known how the 

 ceremony commenced, or what were the causes of its 

 discontinuance. Macrobius, who lived in the lower 

 era of the empire, when describing the custom also 

 spoken of by Plutarch, of adding the body of a womasi 

 to those of ten men, if numbers were burnt at a time, 

 distinctly states, that in his own time burning the 

 dead was not practised. 



The true or fabulous histories of many nations co- 

 temporary with the Romans, and rising into notice 

 at the period of the r overthrow, refer to the burning 

 of the dead ; and their own accounts receive corrobo- 

 ration from the observations of others. Czsar relates, 

 that the funerals of the Gauls were magnificent, and 

 that every thing esteemed by the deceased was con- 

 sumed along with his body ; and Tacitus assures as, 

 that although the Germans exhibited leas ostenta: 

 the bodies of illustrious persons were burnt with cer- 

 tain kinds of wood ; and that the arms of all, and the 

 horses of some, were consumed along with them. The 

 practice extended over the north ; and, descending 

 still later, we find the Danes erecting piles to their war- 

 riors, the flames whereof might " reach to heaveii." 

 Burning of the dead, as we shall presently see, 

 is not uncommon among the natives of the British 

 territories in India. But this ceremony is attended 

 with some singular circumstances amor.g the Cucit 

 or Kookies, a savage race of mountaineers d \veilaij 

 to the north-east of Chittagong. When any one 

 dies in a village, the body is carried by his relatives 

 to some distance from the house, and deposited on a 

 stage under a shed erected for the purpose. Some 

 member of the family daily places a supply of meat 

 and drink before the corpse, and assiduously guards 

 it from the depredations of dogs and birds wnile it 

 remains in the shed. If another of the same family 

 dies, the corpse is brought to the same place, and simi- 

 lar ceremonies are observed. Whatever be the time 

 of decease, all the bodies are thus kept until the 1 1th 

 of April, on which day the relatives assemble, and 

 convey them to funeral piles, prepared on a certain 

 spot within the precincts of the village, where they 

 are burnt. The sheds where they bad been depo- 

 sited are likewise consumed. This ceremony being 

 over, the whole persons concerned in it repair to the 

 house of him in whose family the first death occurred 

 in that year, and partake of an entertainment given 

 in honour of the dead. On the f .Mowing day, a 

 similar entertainment is given by him in whose family 

 the next casualty happened ; and so on with the rest, 

 until a feast has been given for each of the departed. 

 This feast in honour of the dead, called siliccr- 

 niu:n by the Romans, is given almost over the whole 

 world, and is a rite atill retained in Britain. Certain 

 tribes of American savages preserve the remains of 

 the deceased in the same way as the Kookies, until a 

 certain time of the year. 



The bodies of deceased Birmans are burnt ; but as 



